ThoughtWorks, a global technology company employing 200 people Australia, is concerned that Australian Attorney-General appears confused about data retention and metadata.

We stand ready to provide Senator Brandis with a briefing and clear explanation of the technical and practical aspects of metadata and data retention, in addition to outlining the considerable cost it poses to business.

ThoughtWorks believes in data austerity, or 'datensparsamkeit' in German, and promotes the practice of storing only data that is necessary rather than collecting everything that might be useful in the future.

Advertisement

When a company or government practises data austerity, the burden is on them to demonstrate a need for the data they store. They must make the case for sharing their data, rather than routinely collecting and storing it for policing, intelligence, or commerce. Germany has evolved laws that embrace this principle, not least due to the use of surveillance by former regimes.

A recent report from Human Rights Watch interviewed 46 journalists and 42 lawyers in the US to examine the impact of surveillance on their work in sectors that form part of any functioning democracy.

The report outlines how confidentiality between journalist and source, and between lawyer and client is undermined and compromised by surveillance and is leading to lawyers declining cases and journalists reporting less on issues that are vital to public discourse.

As technologists we are concerned that technology is being used to invade privacy in ways that courts have found to be unnecessary and disproportionate, and in ways that are undermining the work of journalists and lawyers.

Perhaps if the Attorney-General understood it better, he would be less inclined to enact data retention given that other countries have found it to be inconsistent with universally recognised human rights.

The data retention regime in Europe created real costs for internet service providers (ISPs) and telcos in the administration and labour required to collect, store, maintain and transfer data onto new or evolving systems.

These costs are hardest on small companies, with a competition and market impact, and ISPs are forced to pass on some of the costs to users. As iiNet has made clear, data retention costs everyone.

Advances in technology means data about telephone calls, emails, information accessed online, and detailed information about the location of mobile telephones, can be used to deduce very intimate details about a person’s associations, interests and activities.

As technologists, we believe it would be misleading in the extreme to minimise the significance of what can be learned through metadata; it is not trivial either in the quantity or quality of information contained.

One wouldn’t need to hear the conversation to make deductions about a phone call between a private individual and a divorce lawyer, or a cancer clinic, or a journalist.

Indeed, the US NSA’s former General Counsel Stewart Baker said in 2013, “metadata absolutely tells you everything about somebody’s life. If you have enough metadata, you don’t really need content.”

Blanket communications data retention was found by the European Court of Justice in April to violate the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The Court stated that data retention was a "serious interference with … the right to privacy and the right to protection of personal data".

Many states across Europe, including Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Greece, have found mass data retention to be superfluous, harmful or even unconstitutional.

A US federal judge, Richard J Leon in December 2013 ruled that a lawsuit challenging NSA bulk metadata collection had a “substantial likelihood of success”.

Lindy Stephens is global director of people operations, IT consultancy ThoughtWorks. The company is actively involved in moves to enshrine universal access to the internet.

21 comments so far

Yes, time the bigot got educated in his portfolio, he obviously is out if his depth. We still need some accountant to give our treasurer some training though..,

Commenter

BirkBorkasson

Date and time

August 07, 2014, 3:53PM

All the Abbott Government members are a lost cause. They're ideology driven, they won't listen to experts in their field. They reject science. Just look at Abetz's comments on links between abortion and breast cancer, refuted by the AMA. You can't educate these dinosaurs, they're heading for extinction at the next election.

Commenter

DaveB

Date and time

August 08, 2014, 5:37AM

If it is not in the Bible we don't want to know about it !

Commenter

adam

Location

yarrawonga

Date and time

August 08, 2014, 5:45AM

Saw George Brandis on TV last night. His desk hasn't even got a computer on it, however I'll bet he is a whiz with an abacus.

Commenter

adam

Location

yarrawonga

Date and time

August 08, 2014, 5:50AM

An analogy for meta-data collection; You visit a library at 12:15, you go to the non-fiction shelves, you peruse ‘art & architecture’, you pick up a book at 12:18, open the cover and flip a few pages, you put it back and pick up another at 12:20, you don’t open it but put it back on the shelf at 12:21. You leave the library at 12:30.Meta-data summary:Person 12.34.56.78 logs into 216.239.51.99 (Google) at 12:15Person 12.34.56.78 searches Google (art & architecture)Person 12.34.56.78 opens link 345.34.5.67 at 12:18Person 12.34.56.78 opens pages from link 345.34.5.67Person 12.34.56.78 opens link 4.56.89.0 at 12:20Person 12.34.56.78 logs out of 216.239.51.99 (Google) at 12:30

Commenter

Dave S

Date and time

August 07, 2014, 4:07PM

what was in that book dave?you flicked throu......next will be the camera filming you open that book.....next will be a gps tracker implanted in you at birth..next will be technology implanted into your brain to make you into a robot ....and i havent worked out what goes on next..can someone help me?

Commenter

skeptic

Location

perth

Date and time

August 08, 2014, 6:05AM

These pollies are lawyers, and not IT system administrator. So the whole thing is about continuing and making their current operations legal from Snowden revelation.

Again, lawyers if you give them a chance, they'll argue about anti-gravity on behalf of client.

They really think we are all idiots, because they THINK they had read more books.

Commenter

Gerson

Location

Sydney

Date and time

August 07, 2014, 5:34PM

If Brandis can't determine Corporate sponsored content over Government sponsored content, God should give Brandis a seat at the Pearl Gates.

Commenter

Charlie

Date and time

August 07, 2014, 5:45PM

I wouldn't waste my time, I don't think his is nearly smart enough to understand. Plus he's too busy reading the books we paid for that the Australian National Audit Office says (are) "in areas that are at risk of being outside the scope of the entitlement" (source: The Australian 01/10/2013)

Commenter

DissDave

Location

Canberra

Date and time

August 07, 2014, 7:04PM

After yesterday's effort I don't think Peta is going to let George talk to anyone about anything for a while

Subscribe to IT Pro

Editor's Choice

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has bolstered Malcolm Turnbull's ministerial duties, handing him greater responsibility for e-government in a push to expand the use of a single digital identity for Australians.

Data

The new roof that spans Margaret Court arena does more than keep out the weather. Built into the gantries that surround the sliding ceiling are Wi-Fi antennas that beam web access to every ticket holder.